STEVENS POINT – Fifty years of environmental ethics education at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point will be marked this month with an event featuring a talk from American philosopher J. Baird Callicott.
“Fifty Years of UWSP Environmental Ethics” will be held from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. April 5 in the Dreyfus University Laird Room, 1015 Reserve St., Stevens Point. The event is open to the public, free of charge.
UW-Stevens Point’s department of philosophy was the first in the country to offer a course on environmental ethics, taught by Callicott in 1971. The university also has one of the longest-running environmental ethics majors in the world.
Callicott will present the keynote, “Thinking like a Planet: The Land Ethics and the Earth Ethic,” discussion reflections on Aldo Leopold’s thought in the past, present and future. From UW-Stevens Point, he went on to be a national voice and proponent of Aldo Leopold’s land ethic and its response to global climate change.
His talk will be followed by a panel discussion on the history of environmental ethics courses and programs at UW-Stevens Point, and will include:
· Jason Zinser, assistant professor of philosophy at UWSP
· Chris Diehm, professor of philosophy at UWSP
· Michael Nelson, professor of environmental ethics and philosophy at Oregon State University
· Brenda Lackey, associate dean for academic affairs at UWSP
· Bob Ramlow, UWSP alumnus and founding member of the Midwest Renewable Energy Association
Callicott is a retired University Distinguished Research Professor and Regents Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Texas.
He is co-editor-in-chief of the “Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy” and author and editor of many books and journal articles about environmental ethics and philosophy. He has served as president of the International Society for Environmental Ethics, as Bioethicist-in-Residence at Yale University and as chairman of the UNT department of philosophy and religious studies.
Source: UW-Stevens Point
